MONTREAL – On the day he pulled up outside a Parti Québécois election event in an SUV loaded with guns and ammunition, Richard Bain boasted that he was “a great hunter” to an elections official who refused to let him vote, his murder trial heard Friday.

Caroline Huot testified that she was an assistant to the returning officer in Quebec’s Labelle riding on election day, Sept. 4, 2012, when she got a call from a worker at a polling station asking whether Bain was on the voters’ list.

He was not, but Bain insisted on talking to Huot on the phone. She explained that he was registered in a distant riding where he used to live, and that it had been his responsibility to ensure he was on the proper list.

“In an arrogant way, he said he was known in the region as a great hunter,” Huot told the jury. “He said he was from a family of hunters.” He then asked for the spelling of her name.

Huot was asked whether she felt threatened. “I didn’t feel threatened at the time,” she said.

Later that day, the Crown alleges, Bain drove to Montreal with an arsenal in his black GMC Yukon, which he parked behind the concert hall where the PQ was celebrating its victory.

Court exhibit

This included a CZ 858 Tactical semi-automatic rifle and CZ 75 nine-millimetre pistol he carried to the concert hall as premier-designate Pauline Marois took the stage. He also had two identical rifles, a Beretta pistol, a machete and a knife in the vehicle left nearby, Sgt. Guillaume Vezeau of the Sûreté du Québec testified.

Bain is on trial for the first-degree murder of stagehand Denis Blanchette and the attempted murder of other stagehands and a police officer. Court has heard that the man modified magazines for the CZ 858 so they could hold 30 bullet, instead of the legal limit of five.

Crown prosecutor Dennis Galiatsatos has told the jury that Bain fired a single bullet from close range, killing Blanchette, who was among a group of stagehands outside a back entrance to the Metropolis concert hall.

The bullet passed through Blanchette and seriously injured another stagehand, Dave Courage.

Then, Bain’s rifle jammed, and he fled toward his SUV, the jury heard. Police tackled him as he pointed the pistol at one officer.

The jammed rifle contained 27 rounds of ammunition, and Bain had another magazine in his pocket holding 29 rounds, Vezeau testified.

Inside the SUV, investigators found a nine-millimetre Beretta pistol on the driver’s seat along with a starter’s pistol. In the back, there were two CZ 858 Tactical rifles equipped with scopes.

Magazines and boxes containing bullets for the guns were strewn around the Yukon — a total of about 235 rounds according to a list submitted into evidence.

The vehicle also contained a bulletproof vest on the passenger seat. Its license plate, G31 ARM, had been removed.

The jury has heard that after arriving in Montreal, Bain asked a family member how to find the Metropolis. His radio was tuned to live coverage of the PQ victory as he sat in his vehicle behind the downtown concert hall.

‎As he was arrested, he shouted, “The English are waking up!”

The police search of the Yukon found a small Quebec flag in a door compartment and two tickets for a federal Liberal fundraising dinner in the riding of Laurentides-Labelle, scheduled for the following week.

The tickets, $150 each, announced that the guest of honour would be Denis Coderre, then a Liberal MP but now mayor of Montreal.